| Museums have become one of the major places for people to have contact with various cultures. Many people with different backgrounds and purposes come to museums and see the exhibitions. Acknowledging the importance of visitors' personal experience in contemporary society, this study provides extensive information about the experiences of docents' as visitors at art museums. Nine interviewees were studied in three museums: The Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, the University of Iowa Museum of Art and Orlando Museum of Art. The exhibitions contain objects from Mexican, American, and African. Qualitative research using open-ended interviews with docents and educators from the participating museums, as well as observations of exhibition spaces and analysis of museum documents were conducted. Descriptions about the experiences of museum docents' being visitors are categorized using the following themes: personal experiences with museums in general, encountering culture at museums, connecting oneself to the exhibition, and being a docent.; "Personal experiences with museums in general" provide examples of docent visitors' different purposes for coming to museums and explanations of their interests. "Encountering culture at museums" explains how docent visitors interpret different cultures. This section provides examples of various modes in terms of understanding cultures from viewing the exhibitions: comparing, associating, and understanding.; "Connecting oneself to the exhibition" supports the important role of memory when visitors are making "meaningful" museum experiences. In addition to remembering facts from the labels and the objects, remembering individuals, memorable moments related to objects at a visit showed the following patterns: finding a reminder, going back to the timeframe, relating to a familiar subject, and connecting to the present. The interviewees also provided their experiences as docents at the same exhibitions.; The findings in this study provide sets of frames for understanding the "museum experience."... |
